GOSFORD GETS “ALL CLEAR” TO RACE ON ANZAC DAY

GOSFORD is back on track to race again.

RacingNSW has sanctioned the club’s popular Anzac Day meeting to proceed next Friday following remediation work and a series of special gallops yesterday morning under the watchful eye of stewards’ chairman Steve Railton.

“It’s great news,” said Gosford Race Club chief executive Daniel Lacey last night.

“This will be a full dress rehearsal for our biggest race meeting of the year, the $2m 10-race The Coast Saturday metropolitan stand-alone program, on May 10.”

After a nine months’ hiatus during which the club undertook a major infrastructure project which included the home turn being re-cambered to a gradient of six per cent to maximise competitive racing, along with remediation of the old reverse camber in the home straight and removal of track undulations.

The first two meetings on February 22 and March 15 (when the Provincial-Midway Championships Qualifier was run) were held, and at that stage more than 300 horses had galloped over the track without incident.

However, the next two meetings on March 27 and April 10 were not able to be run in full when a horse slipped on the home turn at the former date and then another slipped rounding the turn after passing the winning post at the latter.

It was subsequently identified that a hard layer (crust) had formed at the top of the profile. This layer, in sections, had restricted horses from breaking through the surface of the track, thus causing a slip.

Gosford called in Evergreeen Turf, the specialists who remediated the Gold Coast track at January’s Magic Millions carnival.

“It was identified that the track was still too firm, and this ‘crust’ needed to be broken down and de-compacted,” Lacey explained.

“Around 5-6mm of course drainage sand (equating to approximately 150 tonnes) was top-dressed into the surface of the profile.

“An Agri-Vator was then worked over the new track sections. This device is specifically designed to break up hard soil layers, decompress soil and aerate the profile.”

Lacey revealed that prior to that work being carried out, a “going stick” – which measures compaction of the soil and provides a reading as to the resistance of the profile – was used, and the outcome showed that the track was way too firm.

“The readings were taken at varying distances on the track (inside, middle and outside) and were 11.1, 13 and 14.6 respectively.

“A reading of mid to high 7s is deemed as good going.

“Following the remediation work done by Evergreen, the readings then were 7.6, 7.9 and 7.9, so it was clear the decompression process had produced positive results.

“Senior jockeys Josh Parr and Tommy Berry, apprentice Anna Roper and a number of our regular trackwork jockeys took part in special gallops on Thursday morning when 13 horses (principally in pairs) worked on relevant sections of the track.

“The feedback was positive, showing that horses could break into the profile and gain purchase on the surface.

“No signs of slips were encountered.

“Based on the jockeys’ feedback, RacingNSW stewards and turf experts, it was recommended that the Anzac Day race meeting should proceed as planned with a view to also conducting The Coast meeting on May 10.”

Lacey added that his club acknowledged the inconvenience caused to industry participants with the overall loss of the last two meetings, and thanked everyone for their patience.

Story John Curtis, April 18, 2025